• Observing and modelling
• Marine Climate Change Centre (MC3)
• Ecosystems and biodiversity
• Assessing human impacts
• Animal health and food safety
• Fisheries information
  • Fisheries Science Partnership
  • Commercial species
  • Discards and fishing gear technology
  • Tagging programmes
  • Ecologically important fish habitats
  • Ageing fish
  • Recreational sea angling
  • Surveys
  • Deep-water species, NE Atlantic
  • Under-utilised species
  • Freshwater fisheries
  • Non-native species
  • Salmonids
    • Key features of salmonid lifecycles
    • Salmonid assessment
    • Salmonid ecology
    • Salmonid fisheries
    • Salmonid stocks
  • Eels
  • Fish stomach records
  • Fish-eating birds
  • Unusual fish
  • Species of conservation importance

Salmonid fisheries

 Seine netting for sea trout

Salmon and sea trout stocks in England and Wales support recreational and commercial fisheries in rivers, estuaries and coastal waters that have a capital value of about £130 million (2001 figures). Around 20 different 'netting' methods are employed for catching migratory salmonids, along with angling by rod and line. The netting methods fall into four main categories comprising: gilling nets, which include drift, trammel and coracle nets; sweep/encircling nets, which include seine, draft, draw and wade nets; fixed engines, which include T-nets, J-nets, stop (compass) nets, putcher ranks, traps and cribs (coops); and hand-held nets, which include haaf (heave) and lave (dip) nets. There are rod fisheries for salmon in 78 rivers in England and Wales although the catch in some of these rivers is very small, and in net fisheries are licensed to operate within the estuaries and/or lower reaches of about one third of them. All these salmon fisheries also exploit migratory trout to a greater or lesser extent.